Melee Academy of Higher Learning for Boys: Year 1
by Hikaru Morinaga
Summary: Welcome to Melee Academy of Higher Learning for Boys, a school for the talented. Roy thought it was just another private school for the rich kids, but not everything is what it seems at first. Especially not Melee Academy, where nothing is normal.
1. Chapter 1

**Melee Academy of Higher Learning for Boys**

**Year One**

**-One-**

_Welcome to Melee Academy_, read the large sign situated on the front lawn of the school campus, the sign not big enough to accommodate the full name of the school. In smaller print below that: _Home to the Melee Smashers!_ The school itself was nothing special—it was made of tan coloured brick and some other sort of stone, and from certain angles, the place had a strange look to it. The lawn was well manicured and was surrounded by a black iron fence. A cement walkway led up to grey stone steps, which in turn led to three sets of double doors, pillars in-between them.

Milling about the campus were students in bright blue blazers and black dress pants, the only thing distinguishing them from each other were the colour of their ties. Some were sitting on the front steps; others were standing or sitting around the fence in clusters. Even though it was a typical hot September day and the blazers were not required for the summer uniform, many wore them anyway, mostly because they couldn't find their dress shirts and substituted another, obviously-not-dress-shirt-material one instead.

Roy Pherae was standing at the corner of Devon and King Streets studying the school and the surrounding area. He stood under the only shade on the block, which happened to be by a particularly dangerous bit of sidewalk—it was almost vertical thanks to the tree roots.

_What a weird place for a tree. Who puts trees just on street corners?_

Nintendo Land was weird like that. The school was even weirder inside, as he would find out. Roy was the only one not wearing a blazer, and thus stuck out. This coming from a school that had anthropomorphic animals and Pokémon for teachers.

He'd better get used to it. Some of those people were his coworkers, his teammates, his friends…and housemates. And this was going to be his home for the next four years of his life.

Xoxo

Link scanned the hallway for the first year list of names. He'd found the second and third years' lists, which would have helped him had he not flunked his first year here—it wasn't his fault he had to leave in order to save Hyrule (again). The list wasn't where it was last year; in its place was the third year list.

"It'd be nice if they had a sign or something that said the general area or direction or something," Link muttered, dodging a burly looking second year in the process. "I feel like I've gone in circles."

"That's because you have."

Link turned and found himself staring into the eyes of a boy who looked like he might have been his age, maybe a little younger, with garish red hair and an equally puzzled expression on his face.

"Hey, you're the kid who's diagonal from me at the Manse," said Link. "Are you Roy or…" What was the other guy's name? Mark? Something like that? "Mark?"

"I'm Roy," answered the boy. He smiled and held out his hand. "I'm guessing you're Link then?"

Link grinned and returned the handshake. "Well my younger half's name is also Link, so you'd be right even if you were wrong." At Roy's look: "It's a little complicated to explain. Let's go find that list."

After five minutes, they found the first year list in the main hall, right by the auditorium doors. It was obstructed by a group of first years who looked like they had just received their letters of admittance to Hogwarts.

"This is the real fun part," said Link, as he pushed his way to the front of the crowd. "Figuring out which list has your name on it."

The list itself was made up of several pages, each taped next to each other on the wall in reverse alphabetical order.

"What's your last name?"

"Pherae."

"Is that an 'F' or a "P"?"

"'Ph'," said Roy. Link traced his finger down the page that contained the 'P' students. There weren't all that many, so Roy's name was easy to find. "You're in room two-eighteen-en." He moved on to search for his name. He found it, albeit misspelled. "They always forget the second 'k'."

"Where are you?" Roy asked, taking care to not smudge the now penned homeroom number on the palm of his hand.

"Two-seventeen-en," Link replied, and led Roy out of the crowd and into the middle of the hallway. "That's…I'll just show you." After all, Link was never very good at giving directions.

Link turned left by the guidance suite and passed by the second and third years' lists, Roy next to him, before going through the door at that end of the hallway. Down a flight of stairs and another door, and they were in some sort of tunnel quite a ways off the ground. There was another one across from them, on the other side, presumably leading to the other side of that floor, and one above that to the floor above. Through another set of doors they went, and they came to a crossroads, where they could either go straight and left through yet another door, or they could go right and down another hallway. Blue lockers lined all of the walls, broken up by sliding doors to each of the classrooms. Link went right, and Roy followed.

"This," Link said, gesturing to the first door they came to, "is my homeroom, two-eighteen-en. Yours is right next door."

Roy nodded. Easy enough to navigate. From what he could see, there weren't all that many classrooms on this floor to begin with, just on the one wall.

"I'll see you after the homeroom period and we can compare schedules, 'kay?"

"Sure," said Roy with a smile. Link waved and entered his classroom, which was pretty empty still. Roy continued on to the classroom next door, which was the complete opposite—there were barely any seats open, which was okay considering that there weren't all that many seats to begin with. He took the lone seat open in the back, over by the windows. From his vantage point, he had a nice view of the plaza-breezeway area between the two buildings, which consisted of really nothing but stairs. These stairs led to the lower areas of the building and eventually the field and bleachers.

The bell rang, which sounded more like an air raid siren than a traditional school bell, and students in his class headed for their seats, the chatter subsiding just a little. Through the sliding door came a reddish furred fox, whose school ID proclaimed his name as being Fox McCloud.

_I guess his parents couldn't think of a better name that didn't state the obvious?_

Then again, Roy went to school in Ostia with a boy whose name was Dragon, and he was a quarter dragon. Whatever floats their boat, as they say.

Xoxo

When Roy exited out into the hallway, he noticed just how many students attended the Academy. Originally planned to be open just for those participating in the Tournament so their educations weren't disrupted, Master Hand (who also headed The Manse) decided last minute to open it up to the rest of the town, because otherwise "the Feng Shui was off." (In reality, Master Hand, being really cheap, didn't want to spend all this money on having a building open for just a handful of student-aged Smashers. It was the only thing he ever said that made some sort of logistical and financial sense.) The hallway was teeming with students trying to find their friends, their lockers, and their classrooms, in that order for the most part. Roy stepped to the side to avoid being swept up in the ocean that was the student body, and focused on trying to find Link.

Not that Link was difficult to spot since he, like Roy, wasn't wearing the blazer, and his ears were longer than everyone else's. Link spotted him first.

"Okay so schedule time!" he chirped. Roy held his schedule out, right next to Link's.

"First, second, fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth periods we have in common." Link let his words sink in for a moment before saying, "Wait. _We have_ first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth period in common." At Roy's look: "My Common was never the best in the world—I have a habit of using Hylian sentence structure sometimes."

Roy shrugged. "Happens to the best of us. If it helps, my Hylian isn't the best in the world, either." He grinned. "So where is our first period, oh faithful navigator?"

"Follow me!"

Making sure to not lose sight of him, Roy followed Link around the corner, back through the tunnel and down some more stairs (_There's no shortage of stairs in this place_, mused Roy), through more doors, and found himself in yet another locker-covered hallway. These lockers were a tan colour, the same as the linoleum and a slightly darker shade than the paint above the exposed brick.

"It's near the end of this hallway," Link explained, as they kept walking.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"How do you know all of this?"

Link shrugged, and stopped in front of a door marked with the numbers 2-2-1.

"I was told to repeat this year because I took a leave of absence and _someone_ messed up the paperwork, and they said either way I had to repeat everything anyway since there was no way to make the work up." He casually leaned against the wall next to the doorway.

"What was the absence for, if you don't mind me asking?"

Link explained all about how Hyrule needed a hero and how he was the "chosen hero" and was therefore obligated to come to its aid, which required him needing to leave school.

"Anyway, we should head in before the bell rings. Not that it matters because first years are exempt from tardies the first week, but that's no way to make a good first day impression."

Link slid the door open, nearly tripped over the metal track, and took the first available seat, which was right by the door. Roy sat to his left. Aside from them, there were a few other students, mostly spread out among the twenty or so seats that littered the room. Behind their table sat two boys named Stephen and Nicholas. Stephen was engrossed in a game on his DS and Nicholas was looking over his shoulder, watching. To Roy's left and on the other side of the empty chair was Gary Stu Wesker, who was never referred to by just 'Gary'. Behind him sat Dean and Alex, and situated all the way in the back left corner of the room was Andy, whose tie marked him as a third year, who most of the other Japanese class students simply referred to as 'senpai'.

In floated Mewtwo, who looked very displeased with his current position. Desperate times called for desperate measures, however, and his Tournament sponsors weren't exactly knocking on his door, either. Teaching wasn't even his choice, it was Master Hand's. Still, he couldn't complain, it gave him some extra money. Even though sometimes it wasn't worth it. He threw his binder onto his desk and teleported behind the podium he had in the room for reasons unknown.

"Kiritsu!"

No one moved. Link looked to Roy for assistance and Roy looked back at him in return.

Stephen, after a delayed reaction due to some hardcore things happening in _Phoenix Wright_, stood, arms to his side. He was the only one. He slapped Nicholas's shoulder, urging him to make him not stick out so much.

Mewtwo sighed. This was going to be a long year.

Xoxo

"They say the hardest place to locate is the gymnasium," said Link, as he pushed one of the doors to the gym open. The place was filled almost to capacity with students, most of them hanging out on the bleachers, though some stood next to or behind them. The ones behind them were busy exchanging things, and Roy suspected it wasn't pencils. (In reality it was Pokémon cards.)

"But the gym was the first thing I found," he finished, and took a seat on the lowest step of the bleachers closest to the teachers' table.

"Well it's nice when you find things you're looking for on the first try."

"I was looking for the library though."

Roy stared straight ahead. "Oh."

Link laughed. "Yeah. It was an experience."

"So what do we do here?"

Link crossed one leg over the other. "We sit."

Roy shifted. "That's it?"

"For right now, yeah."

Roy rested his elbows on his knees and placed his head in his hands.

"Exhilarating."

At the teachers' table sat Captain Falcon, Samus Aran, and a few other teachers that Link didn't recognize. Falcon was building a house out of playing cards, complete with a three car garage; Samus was reading a magazine with an expression that said, very clearly, _I don't care about the celebrities I'm reading about, I'm just here killing time_. The other teachers were animatedly talking to each other and trying in vain to get Samus to join in on their gossip.

"You _have_ to get a coffee with us sometime, Sam."

"It's Samus."

"Saymuhs."

Samus sighed. "I don't do coffee dates."

"It's not a date, it's just a gossip meeting," said the teacher Samus normally referred to as Thing One.

"It'll be _fun_!" said Thing Two.

_Metroids, kill me now._

"So we just sit here and wait for something exciting to happen?"

Link shook his head. "No, we wait for them to mark us in, and then we ditch this popsicle stand and do something that doesn't revolve around seeing how long it takes for your butt to get numb."

"Popsicle stand?"

"Do they not have popsicles from where you're from?"

Roy shrugged. "I guess not?"

Link gasped. "I will have to rectify this!"

Samus came over, a red binder in one hand, a pencil in the other. A few of the boys whistled appreciatively, and Samus sent them a glare that would probably kill Ridley, if he wasn't already dead.

"When I call your name, show some sort of acknowledgment." Samus Aran was not the type to beat around the bush. She wanted this over and quickly as possible.

She went through the list of names, and most of the names were acknowledged with whistles and "you're hot!"s and "be my love-muffin!" from one.

_This is why I wear my suit all the time._

After their names were called and Samus moved on to a different part of the bleachers, Link and Roy stealthily made their getaway.

"Now what?"

Link shrugged. "Crazy Hand's in charge of security, so we're free to do whatever we want."

Crazy Hand never hired a security team. He deemed it unnecessary.

"So where to?"

"Wanna see where the pool is?"

Roy nodded. "Why not?"

Xoxo

"And here's the pool room!"

Link's voice echoed across what would have been the pool room if the pool had water and wasn't filled with broken desks and other assorted debris and garbage. Roy was practically sidled against the wall because the entrance Link used—the so-called "secret entrance"—was pretty much at the edge of the pool.

"Or should I say the junk room?" He kicked a chair leg. "They haven't used the pool since the place opened—asbestos." He whispered the last word, as if it was some big secret.

"So they use it as a dumpster?"

"Pretty much."

"Why not just get rid of the whatever and have it so you can use it?"

"It'd leak."

Roy stared at all the junk surrounding them.

"So they shouldn't have bothered."

"Yup." Link propped the door back open. "I've heard that there is a secret storage room behind a wall by one of the bathrooms, but I haven't found it yet, and no one's ever really _seen_ it, so maybe it's some sort of urban legend."

Roy followed Link out and stared at him with a sort of awe.

"How do you _know_ these things?"

Link shrugged with one shoulder. "I have a knack for finding secret spots and keys to open them." He gestured for Roy to follow. "Let's see if we can find the secret storage room before the bell rings."

Xoxo

"My apologies for missing your class," said a young man with blue hair and a regalish air about him. "Due to causes beyond my control—"

"Your excuses do not make up for the fact that you missed my class," said Mewtwo, irritation in his voice. "I would have expected better from a _prince_."

He scowled before remembering to regain composure. "My sincerest apologies once more, Mewtwo-_sensei_."

"I am not going to give you what you missed, that is your responsibility. Go find a classmate and waste their time, Marth."

Marth bowed once before sharply turning on his heel and walking out the door. It really wasn't his fault that the driver he hired to pick him up from the airport was shoddy with addresses and directions and didn't know a GPS from a brick off a house.

_Next time I will just rent a car and drive here myself_.

It was after school hours now, so the halls were mostly deserted. Some of the classrooms had students already requesting help, or they just wanted to get to know their teachers better, or were discussing club ideas. Marth was questioning why he even bothered coming in so late, especially when it was a half-day to begin with, and he came in during the second-to-last class of the day.

"Where am I going to find a classmate? I don't even know who's in my class."

After realizing he'd been walking in circles for the past five minutes, it dawned on Marth that this wasn't the third floor _or_ the new building, where his locker assignment was.

_Murphy's Law must be in effect for today._

Xoxo

"Older me, give me back my controller!"

"Not until you stop cheating at Mario Kart!"

Young Link glared at Link. "How does one even cheat at Mario Kart? You just suck!"

Roy had his Japanese textbook propped open on his knees as he heard the two Links bicker from his spot on the couch. His roommate had supposedly arrived and he hadn't seen or met him yet. Roy thought it odd that he hadn't tried to seek him out, but then again, he doubted his roommate knew what he looked like, either.

"Don't throw things at me! You'll kill me!"

"Older me, I doubt a GameCube controller will kill you. Or me. Or anyone, really." He stuck his tongue out, reset the console, and walked off before Link could react.

"If you need me, I will be with Ness and Popo." With that, Young Link left the room in search of his so-called 'partners in crime'.

Link sighed.

"Hard to believe he grows up to be me, huh?"

Roy smirked. "Just a little bit."

"He still cheated."

Just then, a young man around Link's age poked his head into the room before deciding it best to stand in the doorway instead.

"Are either of you in Mewtwo's first year Japanese class?" His voice was soft-spoken sounding, though firm in his request for information.

"Yeah," answered Link. "Why?"

"I was late," he explained. "Mewtwo refused to give me any information." He frowned for a split second before returning to more neutral ground. "He said to find classmates and ask them, and to not waste his time."

"You didn't miss much," said Roy. "He just gave us some stuff to look over and to ask questions tomorrow about it. Certainly nothing to worry about…um…"

"Hey… Are you that Mark guy?" Link asked.

The newcomer blinked. "It's Marth."

Roy gave Link a look. "Told you."

Link cleared his throat and got up from the floor, all thoughts of his younger self cheating in Mario Kart forgotten now.

"I'm Link and he's Roy. Roy's your roomie."

Marth raised an eyebrow.

"Roommate," Link corrected. "You're a prince, aren't you?"

"How did you…?"

Link grinned. "I work for a princess. You learn to spot these things." He gestured to the room they were in. "Sit, sit. We'll fill you in on everything."

* * *

**Author's note:** Well I kept my promise, didn't I? I said I'd remake it, and here it is! In case you weren't here for the original, there have been quite a few changes, because this was a complete rewrite of everything. So you'll notice a lot of big changes from this and the original, which is to be expected. There will definitely be much better continuity.

So I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I hope I'll see you in the next chapter of _Year One_!


	2. Chapter 2

**Melee Academy of Higher Learning for Boys**

**Year One**

**-Two-**

Roy stifled a yawn as he shuffled down the stairs of The Manse, shoes in his hand, bag over his shoulder. He ran a hand through his unruly hair, deemed it presentable enough in one of the reflective plaques on the wall, and checked the announcement board outside the kitchen for any exciting news.

_Nothing._ He didn't know why, but he felt disappointment. Surely there would be roommate announcements or something?

"Is there an RA or anything around here?"

"An RA?" It was Link who asked. Link had a habit of showing up without making a sound and when you least expected him.

"You know. A residential administrator."

Link shrugged. "Master Hand's the one in charge of pretty much everything. He resides in the building next door." He thumbed towards the left of the Manse. "It's called the Parthenon. No one knows why. Bet he thought it was fancy sounding."

Link entered the kitchen, leaving Roy in front of the announcements board. On it were various flyers advertising things Roy had, for the most part, never heard of. His stomach rumbled and he decided breakfast was probably a good idea, so he entered the kitchen a few moments later. The kitchen was nothing spectacular—cozy, but with enough room to house maybe ten or fifteen people comfortably. There were two microwaves underneath the dark wooden cabinets on the wall right by the sink, a fridge, freezer, range, sink, dishwasher, and other basic commodities found in a kitchen space. Right above the sink was a window with the frilliest window valance Roy had ever seen—it looked like some sort of delicate, expensive lace not unlike something you would find on a doily. Right in the middle of the kitchen was a table, which was currently occupied by a few of the residents. None of the chairs matched each other, nor did they match the table, and the only thing that matched them was the chair cushions and the tablecloth. They were matched to the colour of the valance. The flooring was made of some sort of beige ceramic tile, possibly for ease in cleaning up spills.

Princess Peach Toadstool was busy cooking breakfast, her back turned towards the sitting Smashers, a spatula in her hand as she carefully watched the griddle on the countertop. Roy took the seat next to Link, who was sat by his younger self. Also joining them at the table were Ness, Popo, and Nana. Pikachu and Pichu were both huddled on the table, at the corner, each with a pint sized bottle of ketchup. Also sat in the corner was Mewtwo, who was reading the newspaper.

"Where's your roommate?" Link asked in between bites of waffles. Roy shrugged.

"He was in the bathroom showering when I left. He'll be down shortly, I'd guess."

Sure enough, Marth entered the kitchen, blazer slung over his arm. His tie was knotted to perfection, his shirt was tucked in, trousers obviously ironed, shirt starched… Link couldn't even find matching socks this morning, let alone go through all the trouble of looking like someone out of one of those men's wear magazines.

"What is for breakfast?"

Peach placed a huge batch of pancakes in the centre of the table. "Pancakes, waffles, eggs, bacon, and toast." She smiled at him, gestured to the empty seat next to Roy. "Help yourself!"

Marth took the offered seat and filled up his plate with some pancakes, toast, and eggs.

"What do you think the quiz will be about?" Marth asked, knowing full well that Mewtwo was present at the table. He ignored them, continuing to read the paper.

Link shrugged. "Dunno. I don't even remember what we were supposed to study."

"I think it was something about six basic phrases and how polite they are," said Roy.

"I peeked into the book and discovered it's not written in Common, it's entirely in Japanese, so I gave up," said Link. "Who the heck writes a textbook in the language you're studying? That requires you to know it already."

"Link, that's the second half of the book. The first book has transliterated Japanese."

Link huffed. "What's the difference?" He stabbed his waffles with his fork.

"Why are you even taking the course if it's difficult for you?"

Link took a minute to process what Marth even said. "I like to challenge myself."

"I hope you don't fail in achieving that goal."

Link chewed noisily. "I hope not too."

Xoxo

The walk to school was rather uneventful. The sun was out, shining in all its glory, in between clouds that would occasionally pass in front of it. There was a dry breeze every now and then, which would tousle Link's hair and blow his bangs in his face. He'd simply blow them out of his eyes and continue on with life, perhaps with the thought of getting a haircut one of these days.

"Is this an oral test or a written test?" Roy asked as they crossed one of the busier intersections.

"I don't think Mewtwo mentioned it," said Link. "I hope it's written though. I'm not a fan of public speaking. Not that I would pass either way…"

"Did he even specifically say what we would be tested on?" asked Marth. "Or did he simply say, 'Test tomorrow. Be prepared'?"

"He didn't even say anything, he just wrote it on the board and walked out," said Link. "Said something about needing more coffee though, but I doubt we'll be tested on that."

"Then again," Link continued, "this _is_ Mewtwo we're talking about. He hates teaching. I wouldn't be surprised if he pulled something like that."

As they neared the school building, they could just make out students lining up around the fenced perimeter. There were a few pulling up in various fancy cars, and some were brought in by their parents. The parking lot was nearly full, and it was only a little after seven-fifty in the morning, most of the cars belonging to faculty and staff. You had to arrive early if you wanted a coveted spot in the lot, otherwise it was street parking. Most just simply walked from home to the school so they didn't have to worry about parking issues, because if there was parking in Hell, it would look like the front of Melee Academy.

After they entered via the entrance by the "no smoking" sign that everyone ignored and smoked by, Link stopped by the first row of lockers and turned to face Roy and Marth.

"Okay, serious question time."

"What's up?" asked Roy.

"Where's everyone's lockers?"

Roy snuck a peek at his schedule. "Third floor new building."

"Mine as well," said Marth. "What number?"

"Fifteen-twenty-nine."

Marth nodded. "Same as mine."

Link frowned. "Mine's all the way on the first floor new building. That's not near any of my classes!"

"Can't you change it?" asked Roy.

"Yeah, but it's a pain in the butt to change. You have to stand in a long line outside the discipliner's office with a stupid 'locker change request' sheet that you fill out while standing there. Then you have to hope that they change it for you. You even have to give reasons and they judge you based on your reasons, trust me." He huffed. "Changing lockers is serious business in this place."

The bell rang, signaling they had five minutes to march off to their respective homerooms. Marth and Roy looked to each other, then back at Link.

"Good luck, then," said Roy.

"I wish you all the best," Marth said, and awkwardly patted Link on the shoulder before they walked down the hallway.

"W-Wait, where are you guys going?"

"Homeroom," Roy answered. "Don't you have a locker change request to put in?"

"Unless you decided you would rather not suffer from the inconvenience…"

Link hung his head and sighed. Should he go through with the request? On the one hand, it was a pain to do. On the other hand, his locker was a pain to get to between classes. It was like a Sierra Online game—no matter what you do, you still have a huge ordeal to go through for one measly little thing.

_What a pain in Epona's ass_. He reluctantly headed towards the second floor, where the disciplinary office was located, to see if they could give him a more convenient locker.

_I guess I could always share with Marth and Roy, but three people to a locker is kind of crowded…_ Then again, he'd seen five people share one locker before. When it came time for their gym clothes to be brought home… You could smell their locker two floors away.

Xoxo

Today was the day they received their Melee Academy handbooks and various other papers that held little meaning whatsoever, but the teachers had to hand them out anyway. Most students just defaced the handbook and threw out the papers; Roy just placed them in his messenger bag and then waited for the half hour homeroom to be over with.

_I wish I had brought a book with me._ He sighed, and rested his head on top of the desk. _Maybe next time._

The students in Marth's homeroom not only defaced the handbooks that were given out, but they ripped out pages and made various origami shapes out of them, or chucked balled up pages at each other, or in the case of one boy, made a model house out of the whole book. Marth sat all the way up near the top of the bleachers, whereas the rest of them sat nearer to the bottom for a quicker escape. He didn't mind being by himself—he preferred it. Unlike the rest of them, where they had two years to build meaningful relationships with their classmates, Marth had just arrived and only knew two people, one of whom was his roommate and the other seemed to be his good friend. And if Marth was going to be honest with himself, he didn't mind having just them as his friends. Especially Roy. There was something about Roy that drew Marth to him, though he didn't know what. He knew nothing about him.

_Maybe there will be a meet and greet at some point… Or something like one._

Link, meanwhile, was stuck in the dreaded long line for locker changes outside room 215. There was another line across from this one for attendance and other miscellaneous issues that was just as long, though at least that one seemed to be moving faster. Link sighed and leaned his Official Request for Locker Changes Form 1A against the dry wall, pen in hand, so he could fill it out with all the necessary details.

"Does 'bad smell and weird stains' count as a good reason to change a locker?" asked a third year named Troylan.

"What kind of stains?" asked his twin, whose name was Nalyort. He hadn't seen the locker that was supposed to be theirs yet.

"D'you think I inspected it close enough to be able to tell?"

"Point taken."

The line moved a few centimetres. Link let out a long sigh. This was going to take forever.

_At what point should I leave the line and just deal with it until the initial lines wind down?_

Unfortunately for Link, there was a very limited amount of time to even do a locker change, and most people didn't even bother, instead taking one of the empty ones closer to whatever location was convenient for them. Or they just shared with one of their besties.

Link stood in line for ten more minutes, heard the first bell ring, and decided this long line that was moving slower than gridlocked traffic wasn't worth being in over something as trivial as a locker. He crumpled up his Request for Locker Changes Form 1A and jetted around the corner to, hopefully, make it to his first period on time.

Xoxo

There were certainly new faces in his class, and Mewtwo shrugged, uncaring about this—he was still going to give the quiz, because Mewtwo was one of _those_ teachers. The new additions were Robert Caprio, Caiprinha Conquista Mucho Ahalorez, and someone who just went by Johnathan Joe. Despite the rather feminine name, Conquista was one hundred percent male and seemed to have Nintenpod earbuds forever glued to his ears. Johnathan Joe preferred to not speak, mostly because he always wore a gag.

Mewtwo calmly took a sip of coffee before clearing his throat.

"Ready for the quiz? Not that it matters because you will have it regardless."

_Some reminder._

"Watch it, Mekkai-kun."

_Forgot Mewtwo's a telepath._

"Now if you'll look at the white board, you will see the topic you are being quizzed on. I hope you all studied, even though I know most of you didn't."

Everyone stared at the white board. All around the room, students' shoulders drooped in relief. It was an easy topic; it was what they went over in class yesterday.

Which was not a good thing for poor Marth, who wasn't present in class yesterday. Even with Roy's and Link's guidance, it was not enough for Marth to be able to be able to answer quiz questions.

"Mewtwo-sensei, I wasn't here for this. I should be given a make-up day."

Mewtwo glared at Marth. "I told you to go to classmates and get the material. It's not my fault you are not prepared."

Marth stood from his seat. "With all due respect, it's not fair for you to quiz someone who wasn't present for a lesson as a sort of punishment. That is a sign of ill teaching skills. Or retaliation against something against someone's control."

Mewtwo sighed, a frown on his face. "Get out of my class if you have a problem."

Marth wasn't sure whether to take his advice and leave or stay and potentially fail the quiz.

_Either way will result in failure, won't it?_ Take the test or not take the test… Fail or fail miserably.

In the end, Marth neatly packed up his things, spun sharply on his heel, and calmly walked out of the room, shutting the door just a tad harder than intended. If he was going to fail it either way, he might as well leave with some sort of dignity intact, and stand up for his beliefs, and all that stuff. No one else was allowed to follow him.

"Here is your one question quiz. I will collect them at the end of the period. Go."

After a few minutes of people tapping their pens against the desk and staring at the paper blankly, everyone managed to complete it one way or another, either by writing nonsense or the right answers or their shopping list, and set it to the side.

"Today, I will be teaching you your first kanji." Mewtwo gestured to the board, where the kanji for 'day' was written in place of the quiz question. "It is the most important kanji you will be learning for right now since it is used in the date, and it's an easy kanji to learn."

"Says you," muttered Link.

"Before I get into the mechanics of writing this kanji, there are some rules you must learn about writing Japanese. Namely, there is a specific order to writing them, and if you don't do it in the order I teach you, consequences will follow."

"What, are you gonna throw us out a window if we do it wrong?" asked Gary Stu Wesker.

Mewtwo smirked. "No, I will just fail your work. And possibly throw you out a window. But definitely fail your assignment."

Gary Stu Wesker gulped. Mewtwo-sensei was scary.

"Now then. Everyone take out some paper and a writing tool of some kind and follow my movements on the board…"

Xoxo

The gym was as noisy as always, the din white noise to Link and Roy as they shouldered the doors open. For convenience, the teachers labeled their respective bleacher areas so their students could find them easily. Naturally there were still students who ended up with the wrong teacher.

"I don't know if I should be excited or scared for learning how to write our names in Japanese tomorrow," said Link as he and Roy sat down on the cold, hard bleachers.

"I wonder if Marth's coming back to class or if he's going to drop it?" Roy placed his bag down at his feet, next to Link's.

"Dunno. He's a third year, so he needs to take a language, and I dunno what's still open… Probably German or Hylian or Latin."

"Not sure how interested he'd be in those."

Link shrugged. "He needs two years of some kind of language. People say German is easy. Teacher's a little…" Link moved his finger in a circle by his head, the universal sign of saying _he's crazy. _"He's kind of…off."

"So why is he a teacher here?"

"Have you met our principal? Crazy Hand isn't the best judge of character, let's be honest with ourselves."

Roy had to admit that, and he'd never even met Crazy Hand. The name alone was enough.

"I hope Marth doesn't let Mewtwo get to him, though. Mewtwo's a jerk to begin with." Link was doodling on the cover of his rather plain Japanese notebook.

"Thing is, him walking out means he missed today's lesson as well. He's not setting a very good start for himself."

"You mean example."

"That's what I said."

Roy sighed.

On the gym floor, a few of the upper classmen retrieved a basketball from the ball bin behind one of the bleachers and started throwing it around.

"Are they allowed to do that?"

"Dunno," answered Link with a shrug. "Doesn't matter to me. I'm waiting for someone to get hit in the head with the ball."

In room 306, Marth once again sat down in his seat towards the back of the class. There was assigned seating and his last name put him on the same wall as the door, giving him an idea of just how small his Advanced Placement English class was. On the teacher's desk were stacks of English textbooks and his classmates frowned as they came in.

"It's only the second day of classes and they're giving books out," said Troylan, with a roll of his eyes. "There's something wrong with this school."

"We've been here for three years, and you've just realized this?" asked his buddy Doug. "Where the hell have you been?"

Their teacher, who was a short, rather stout looking man who resembled a teapot in many ways, sat at his desk after heaving himself onto his chair. He had to practically pole-vault onto it, since his legs were very, very short.

"Are there more of you?" asked the teacher, whose named was Mr. Hendersen.

"Nope," said Doug, who slumped down in his seat, arms crossed behind his head. "Just us five."

Hendersen looked at his seating chart. "I see. Mr. Wizenschmidt, pass out the textbooks."

"Why me?"

Hendersen gazed at him over his spectacles. "Because you are in front."

"So is Troy."

"I ain't doin' it."

Doug sighed, slid out of his chair completely, and crawled over to the desk two feet in front of him.

_Talk about lazy_, thought Marth.

Xoxo

Link groaned as he entered his English class. "Not you… Anyone but you…"

Mr. Georgeston grinned at him, his smile lecherous in nature. Unluckily for Link, he was the only one who had showed up to class so far…and he was hoping he wasn't the last.

"Well if it isn't Link." His grin got wider. "You can have the honour of sitting right up front so I can keep an…eye on you."

Link reluctantly walked over to the seat right in front of the teacher's desk and watched Mr. Georgeston very carefully. There was no chance for further communication between the two of them because at that moment more students came in, leaving Mr. Georgeston with a look of disappointment, the smile slipping from his face immediately, and Link was absolutely overjoyed. He practically sat in another boy's lap simply to get as far away from Mr. Georgeston as possible...and then remembered that he was Link, Hero of Time, not some random kid. He had a sword in his locker. What was there to fear? Aside from the creepy glances he got, of course. He was briefly reminded of the Poe collector back in Hyrule before the bell rang again, signaling the start of class.

_Maybe they're related_.

"How many of you read the summer reading without resorting to Spark Notes?" Mr. Georgeston asked.

No one raised their hand. Mr. Georgeston was not surprised.

"You actually expected us to?" asked one boy. "Are you dumb?"

"Do you want detention?" Mr. Georgeston was not the type of teacher to mess with. Aside from with Link, he was rather strict with the rest of the class.

"Now… This year we will start off with a number of short stories from the likes of Poe, just to get us in the mood for reading. Then we will delve into the horrors of gothic novels such as…" He snuck a look at the curriculum. "Oh. It says 'southern gothic'. We will be reading _To Kill a Mockingbird_ and maybe seeing the movie…if you all behave." The way he said 'behave' sent a collective shudder throughout the class.

_Help me_, Link texted to Zelda. _My English teacher is creepy._

He got no response.

In room 420, Roy sat in one of the small, cramped desks in an equally cramped area of the room—the rest of the room was taken up by lap tables and various counters of equipment. His teacher was nowhere to be found and for whatever reason that was of concern to no one, really, because one of the greatest things that could happen was your teacher not showing up and no substitute taking over for them. Roy doodled on the cover of his binder, and for the most part his classmates kept mostly to themselves.

_I wish Link was here. He'd make this less boring_. He'd thought about starting up a conversation with others, but Roy wasn't entirely sure what to even discuss. The weather? There was nothing exciting about the weather, save for that it was hot, but that wasn't exactly unusual for the time of year…

Roy opted instead to text Lilina, his best friend, and see what she was up to. It was better than sitting in silence in a class of extremely unmotivated first years.

When Marth walked into room 314 for History class, he took one look at the size of the textbooks and nearly walked out. But he persevered inside, undeterred by the fact that these books were larger than the ones in the royal library back home, and took a seat towards the front. Since this was an advanced placement course, it was smaller than your average class, yet bigger than his last AP class. There were at least ten other students, which was a relief, and one of them had already taken one of the history tomes and started perusing it.

_This class seems like it might be okay—compared to the rest of the classes I've had today._

"I hope we don't have to carry these things around with us… We'd need a flatbed to transport them everywhere!" said one of the kids towards the back.

"Pretty sure we'll be keeping them in the classroom," said the one with the textbook. "Or maybe they'll be available on the computer."

A man with red hair, olive skin, and a larger-than-average nose came in looking rather disgruntled. He stomped over to his desk and sat himself down, glaring at each and every one of his eleven students with a threat in his eyes.

_Oh, this looks like it'll be fun._

His teacher wrote his name on the board, albeit in chicken scratch, and gestured to the books on his desk.

"Get one of these and start reading."

The boy who already had a textbook asked, "What'd you like us to read?"

Ganondorf shrugged. "I don't care, just don't bother me or I, Ganondorf, King of Thieves and Evil and Power, will do worse to you than give you detention."

The kid next to Textbook Boy snorted. "Do what, hit us with a ruler?"

Ganondorf proceeded to Warlock Punch the kid he will forever refer to as 'Smart Ass'.

Marth decided it would be safer to open his book and silently contemplate why there were so many places in the world filled with historical happenings.

_Would you look at that_, thought Marth as he read the first header. _The history of the continent of Archanea._

And then he proceeded to wonder why there were pronunciation guides next to place names in brackets.

_Is it really all that difficult to pronounce 'Altea'?_

"Heh, is there a lot of tea is All-tee?"

The prince of Altea tried very, very hard to not go and knock some sense into him with his textbook like any of his tutors would have done to any other student—his tutors couldn't hit _him_, he was immune, because princes were not supposed to be touched, but they still threatened him.

Marth was also not the type of person to hit people with blunt objects.

Xoxo

"If they keep up this whole 'no lunch periods' thing I might get too used to it," said Link outside Roy's English class.

"It's only for the rest of this week."

"I know, but it only takes about two, three days for me to get into a habit and then, well…it's hard to get out of it."

"You get spoiled."

"Yeah, that's it." The hallway gradually emptied.

"Don't you have a different class from me this period?"

Link glanced at his schedule, blinked at it a few times, and let out a hasty, "I'll see you next period!" before jetting up one floor to where his science class was located. Roy sighed and shook his head, a _he's hopeless_ smile on his face as Roy took his seat in English class.

On each desk was a copy of _To Kill a Mockingbird_ waiting for its respective seat warmer to pick it up and, at the very least, pretend to read and enjoy it. There were a few students taking a cursory flip through the yellowing pages.

"Why do we have to read lit from dead people anyway?"

"So you can see that, in a time before _Twilight_, there were competent writers and stories that made sense and had some sort of meaning and message," said Mr. Georgeston.

One boy named Cory cocked an eyebrow. "What the hell is _Twilight_?"

"It's about some chick who's stalked by a vampire and they fuck or something, I don't know," said the kid sitting next to him, whose name was Ryan. "Or that's what I gleamed from when my girlfriend made me sit through the movies."

"How were they?"

Ryan shrugged. "Was too busy trying to make sure my girlfriend didn't notice my boner for Alice."

Mr. Georgeston had some things written on the board pertaining to the book, mostly basic reaction questions towards the first chapter, and some explanations, like what exactly a 'southern gothic' novel was.

"So together as a class we are going to read the first chapter of _To Kill a Mockingbird_, and I will randomly switch off readers just to keep y'all on your feet and make sure you're still paying attention." He grinned not unlike a sadistic criminal.

Ryan groaned.

"Foiled your plans to text your girlfriend during class, didn't I?"

Alex raised his hand.

"Yes, Alex?"

"What if you _have_ no girlfriend to text?"

"That goes for boyfriends too."

"I…I don't have one of those, either, sir."

Mr. Georgeston clicked his tongue. "What a shame, a strapping young lad such as you without anyone…"

Roy felt just a tad nauseous and sent a text to Link saying _you were right—mr. georgeston is a total creeper._

_didn't i tell u so? omg. iz he hitting on u?_

_no but it's only a matter of time, I'm sure._

_i have a sword in my locker just in case._

"Now! The time has come for reading. My first reader shall be…you, Alexander Valdez."

Alex sunk down in his seat. "It's just 'Alex', sir."

"Read."

Meanwhile in room 420, Link had to resist the urge to run out of the room screaming to his locker to retrieve the Master Sword, because he could feel Mr. Georgeston's brand of creepery from one floor above and he was concerned for Roy's safety. He was pretty sure Mr. Watch would not approve of this type of behavior, however, and probably cut him with his two dimensional edges.

Instead, he had Mr. Watch write him out a bathroom pass so he could go to his locker and get some sort of weapon to pass off to Roy…just in case. On the way to his locker, he bumped into Marth, who looked a little confused.

"Lost?" Link asked.

Marth shook his head. "Band instructor is not here, so we were given a free period." He looked around. "This does not look like the floor that would contain the library on it."

"No," Link agreed. "It's not. This is the floor with the gym. Library's on the top floor."

Marth cursed in a language Link didn't understand.

"I'm gonna bust Roy out of his English class," Link said as he spun the dial of his locker, making short work of it.

Marth raised both eyebrows in surprise and a look of question.

"Roy's got a creeper for a teacher. 'S hitting on all the boys." Link retrieved some sort of dagger from one of his locker shelves. "Wanna come with?"

Marth gave him a look like he had no clue what Link just said. Link switched vernacular.

"Roy's got some undesirable stalker-with-a-serious-problem-slash-complex for an English teacher. He's flirting with the boys. At the very least, anyway. Would you like to help me give this to Roy as a precautionary measure?"

Marth pursed his lips. "Is that ethical?"

Link nodded. "Very much so, Your Majesty." The last bit was almost an afterthought.

"'Marth' is fine."

_Royals_, Link thought, as he relocked his locker and led Marth to Roy's English class. _Some of them __**insist**__ you don't forget what they are, and others don't give a Dodongo's butt. And they all look and act the same, so you can't even tell which ones are snotty and which ones act like normal people._

Xoxo

The walk to the second floor where Roy and Link's eighth period was located was spent in silence. It wasn't that there wasn't anything to talk about—there was plenty. Like how Link (with Marth behind him) burst into his seventh period English class brandishing a dagger and talking about he was saving him from one of Ganondorf's evil incarnate minions. And how this caused everyone to stare at Link and Marth like they'd turned into headless chickens. And how obvious it was that Marth was just one of those unfortunate people to get caught up in Link's overreaction to everything.

"I want to ask you something," said Roy.

Link stopped in his tracks, Roy in front of him. "Yeah?"

"Who's Ganondorf and why were you screaming that Mr. Georgeston was his evil minion incarnate?"

"Because." When Link determined that Roy thought that wasn't a good enough answer, he added, "All evil in the world is linked to Ganondorf. He's the King of Evil, after all."

"Okay," said Roy. "So who is he and how do you know him?"

"He's the bastard responsible for all the grief Hyrule receives," Link spat. "That's all you need to know about him."

"And you think Mr. Georgeston is connected to this Ganondorf guy?"

"Like I said," Link said in a deadpan, "all evil in the world is connected to Ganondorf."

They continued walking on.

"So what did Marth have to do with everything?"

Link's tone changed to something more cheerful. "I invited him along. Bumped into him in the hallway on the way to my locker. He was lost, so I offered to show him the way…if he'd help me bust you out of that bastard's class. And he agreed to it."

Roy was actually genuinely surprised. "Oh."

"Yeah. Didn't even try to talk me down or anything. Just went right along with everything." Link scratched his head. "Maybe it was the fancy words I was saying. I don't know. Or maybe it was the 'Your Majesty'."

Roy blinked. "'Your Majesty'?"

"Marth's a prince, remember?"

Roy shook his head. "No."

"I called him out on it yesterday. You were there in the room—"

"Must've not been paying attention," interrupted Roy. "We were studying for Mewtwo's stupid test, remember?"

"_You_ were studying. I was panicking."

They entered their computer class and, because there was no assigned seating really, they took the closest seats to the door that were also right next to each other.

"I didn't know that."

Link dropped his bag next to his chair. "That I was panicking?"

Roy rested his books on the table in between his computer and the kid next to him's.

"No, that Marth was a prince." He drummed his fingers against his chin. "But now that you mention it…"

"He gives off this vibe, like 'look at me, I'm a prince!' but it's not exactly, like, in your face either… It's a subtle 'hey look at me, I'm a prince!'"

Roy didn't even bother telling Link that didn't make sense.

They logged into their respective accounts and a screen popped up, indicating what assignments they needed to do and whether they were even completed.

"In this day and age, why do we need to learn how to type? Everyone owns a computer," Link mused, as he got started on his work.

"I don't know. I guess in case you're from somewhere that doesn't…?"

Link shrugged. "Whatever. I guess it's always good to learn how to do things the proper way, even if you…don't do them that way at all."

Roy went about his assignments in companionable silence.

Xoxo

"You didn't tell me you were a prince."

No 'hello' or 'how are you?' just Roy asking a question in the form of a statement. Marth draped his school blazer over the computer chair and dropped his books off at the desk.

"Should I have?" Marth asked. "Would it have made any sort of difference in our relationship?" _Or lack thereof, at this point in time?_

"It's a nice detail to include, usually," said Roy, as he readjusted the pillows he was propped up against.

"My being a prince means nothing outside of my kingdom." He went over to his bed and dropped himself onto it. "It's just a title with no meaning." He sighed. "How did you—?"

"Link told me."

Marth nodded slowly. "I see. He has an eye for people."

Roy looked Marth straight in the eye. "I feel…I feel closed off from you. You don't want me to get to know you—you don't want anyone to get to know you. It's like you're on this perch, really high up on this perch, and no one has any sort of ability to reach you. And to be frank, that's not really approachable." Roy shrugged. "A prince should present as someone who can be talked to about any sort of situation by anyone, commoner or court member alike."

"If we're being honest with ourselves, I'm not really here to make friends," said Marth, "but here to learn instead. However…talking with Link has made me begin to feel a little….differently about just being here for knowledge."

Roy smiled. "Link has the tendency to do a lot of things." Roy swung his legs over the side of the bed.

"So you're a prince. I'm the son of a marquess. You want to be called just by your name because you feel your title has no meaning here. I don't even have a title until my father passes on. For some reason I don't feel like we're all that different from each other, though our backgrounds are different."

"For Farore's sake," said Link from the doorway, "just say you want to be friends already. Geez."

Marth narrowed his eyes slightly. "Do you always make it a habit of eavesdropping on other people's private conversations?"

Link shrugged. "You left the door ajar. If it ain't closed, it's not a hundred percent private. And if it ain't locked, then I can come in."

"People knock first to see if they have permission to enter," continued Marth. "Do they not do this in whatever country you are from?"

Link grinned. "Nope. Kokiri Forest, which is where I grew up, doesn't have doors at all!" He entered the room fully. "So if you guys wanna be friends with each other, just say so. You seem to have a lot in common, so I don't see why you'd have any issues. In fact…" Link clapped one hand on Marth's shoulder and the other on Roy's.

"Why don't we all be friends? We're quirky in our own ways…and yet we have plenty in common and a lot we can learn from each other, so…"

Roy shrugged. Marth said nothing at first.

"I don't see any sort of problem with this," said Marth finally. "It's not like I've had any bad experiences with either of you."

Link squeezed their shoulders. "Awesome. Now we can all be one big happy family!" He sat down on Roy's bed.

Marth and Roy exchanged looks; Roy shrugged.

"We could have homework parties or something," said Link. "I find I'm more motivated if there are people suffering with me."

"I have different classes than you," Marth pointed out.

"Doesn't matter. We can complain about how much all of this sucks and how useless it is together." Link grinned. Roy laughed.

"Whatever you say, Link."

The way they all saw it, they might as well get to know each other. They had to learn to live with each other anyway. Might as well make the best of everything, right?

* * *

**Author's Note:** I realise that updates for this are, at best, sporadic, but unlike the original (and unfinished) version, I want to take my time planning things out. Unlike when I was first writing this series, I'm not on any sort of time frame to finish it before, say, the new school year. And since I don't have as much free time as I did back then, in between all the things I have is the time I get to work on fandom related things. But I am working on this, obviously. Just slowly.

Thank you all for the support throughout the (really slow) rewriting process. I've gotten questions regarding what will happen to the original files, and all versions of Melee Academy are available on my fanfiction Dreamwidth, which I believe I have linked to in my profile. I'll probably post a link to a FAQ thing in my profile as well at some point.

I'll see you all in chapter three of Year One (unless you follow other fandom ventures of mine)!


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